Location:
Massif Central, France

Overview:
Team Garmin-Chipotle riders are recording the stages of the 2008 Tour de France with their Garmin Edge 705s for all you data hungry fans out there. Each day, we will feature one rider and his data.

The race moves into the Massif Centrail and today’s 195.5 km stage finishes on the 11 km Super-Besse climb with an average grade of 4.7%. Before the final climb, the riders will ascend three other climbs: two category 2 climbs, Cote de Bellegarde-en-Marche (602m), Cote de Crocq (740m) and the category 2 Col de la Croix-Morand (1401m) with 5.2% average grade.

Christian Vande Velde puts in a gutsy ride today by attacking with just 5 km to go on the final climb. Though his move didn’t stick, he still managed to finish 19th on the stage. His performance today moved him up to fourth in the overall classification.

Difficulty: Moderate

Distance: 121.5 miles

Total Elevation Gain: 11,164 ft.

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Download Ride Data:   GPS Device   GPX   HST   CRS

Cycling Weekly talks to Jonathan Vaughters about Team Garmin-Chipotle’s plan to possibly put Millar in the yellow jersey during stage 6.

From the article: Vaughters has plans, but he remained tight-lipped on what they are. “Getting Dave into the jersey could be tactical, or it might be a matter of somebody screwing up. The chances of us doing something interesting tactically are greater than outpowering our rivals,” he said.

Stage 6 preview from DS Matt White

Well the first real test for the climbers is here. Only two climbs tomorrow and they are not super hard, but a hill top finish with a solid last 3 km we will surely see some action.

The plan for us is to have somebody in the early break if it is a decent size. Then have Trent and Ryder (both pictured left) going with moves on the cat 2 climb and leaving just Christian and Dave to go with the big hitters on the last climb. It will be hard to off load Shumacher or Kirchen though. They are both classy climbers and both have won very big races that finished uphill! Kirchen this year at Fleche Wallone and Shumacher last year Amstel.

Chasing. That was the word of the day for stage 1 of the Cascade Classic. After an off-the-line attack by Steve Cozza that had the whole field chasing for the better part of the first hour, things shifted out of our favor and we were caught out of a 11-rider break with 60 km to go.

It was obvious right away that the break had some horsepower and it would be up to us alone to bring it back. We didn’t waste any time getting to the front and the guys made a valiant effort to bring it back. In the last 20 km, some other teams lent help to the chase, and at the by the base of the final climb with 2 km to go, the group was within sight. Three of us – Pat, Peter and myself finished towards the front end of the riders that came out of the field, so that was a good sign for today’s finishing climb.

A little time lost today, but we’re going to keep fighting every day. We all know the climb today and it will be another decisive stage with even bigger time gaps.

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O stage 1 results
1. Santiago Botero 2h48′31″

13. Blake Caldwell +55″
14. Peter Stetina +55″
18. Pat McCarty +1′01″
67. Steven Cozza +2′24″
88. Tom Danielson +3′07″
96. Tom Peterson +3′11″
111. Daniel Holloway +5′10″
141. Jason Donald +24′33″

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O GC
1. Santiago Botero 2h48′21″

13. Blake Caldwell +1′05″
14. Peter Stetina +1′05″
18. Pat McCarty +1′11″
67. Steven Cozza +2′34″
88. Tom Danielson +3′17″
96. Tom Peterson +3′21″
111. Daniel Holloway +5′20″
141. Jason Donald +24′43″

TV New Zealand reports on Julian Dean’s 10th place finish in stage 5 of the Tour de France.

From the article: “Dean admitted he was hoping to press for a stage win but that things need to fall into place perfectly. He said he is happy all the same with the result but didn’t get enough room in the last 500 metres to wind into the sprint.”

RoadCycling.com reviews David Millar’s gorgeous Felt DA time trial bike complete with Union Jack Zipp wheels.

From the review: “The Garmin team ride Felt bikes, and for the TT David Millar rode the manufacturer’s striking DA model. It’s the company’s top-end time trial bike and its full carbon monocoque frame has been modelled in a wind tunnel, so Millar knows he’s got one of the fastest bikes in the peloton.”

VeloNews talks to David Millar about his remaining hopes for pulling on the coveted yellow jersery. “That’s what I’ll do now, just sit in the ‘gruppetto’ and just go stage-picking,” added Millar, who last wore the yellow jersey in 2000 after he won the race prologue.

Featured Athlete: David Millar

We slept them, we fed them, we warmed them up, we cooled them down, we fed them again, we compressed them, we drove them, we dressed them, we fed them some more, we warmed them up, we iced them down, we made them drink, and in the end, they went really fast. Best team of the day and some world-class performances by Millar, VandeVelde, and the Pate. All I can say is congrats and bravo to all of the athletes, staff, and sponsors who helped make all of this happen.

I think that we’ve proven that we are the best time trialing team in the entire world. We proved that in Georgia, at the Giro, and again today here at the Tour. For me, it’s personally gratifying as the time trial is the one thing that we can control. As they say, it’s the race of truth and something I know we are all really proud of — proud, because these performances didn’t just come out of no where.

At our first team camp in Boulder, the first major project we took on was wind tunnel testing our riders and their old and new equipment and positions at the Colorado Premiere Training Wind Tunnel in Ft. Collins, Colorado. Next were extensive position adjustments and checks with the help of Todd Carver from Retul. Then came all of the field testing with our one-of-a-kind Zipp PowerTaps, equipment modifications and design by sponsors like Felt, Oval and Giro, and some serious investment of time and resources by Pearl Izumi to help design and build the fastest speed suit in the world as well as some of the coldest ice vests in professional cycling. From that point on it was skills and drills all the time. I don’t know of another team out there that put as much time and energy into training together on the time trial bike. Then came all of the extra work by our staff and mechanics to nail down our race day routines. From the logistical madness of keeping our guys cool, to Morgan Nichols from Oval building us custom hosing to vent the fumes off our bus, to the coordination of athletes and staff to pre-ride, recon, split time, and nail down every last possible detail that could help us go faster. When I think about all that detail, it floors me.

In the end, all of the guys had nothing left to do but lay it all out there – no doubt, no remorse, no blame. For David, that amounted to an average power output of 400 Watts, with surges between 500 to 600 Watts on the numerous 20 second to 2 minute rollers that lined the course and speeds of up to 80 kph at 0 to 400 watts on the descents. Perfectly paced with just over 17 minutes below 5 watts per kg and almost 19 minutes above 5 watts per kg.

And ya, we were a bit nervous in the car today and ya, JV forgot he was on live TV when he told Robbie Ventura from Versus what was on his mind. But in the end, just because we’re a clean team, doesn’t mean we can’t talk dirty. I think with all of the hard work we’ve done this last year, we deserve at least that much.